The present invention relates to a lever apparatus for use in a vehicle structured such that the base end portion of a lever is rotatably mounted on a lever support member.
In a lever apparatus for use in a vehicle, generally, there is employed a structure in which two rotatably-supporting shaft portions are respectively provided on and from the two mutually opposing portions of the mounting portion of the base end portion of a lever made of synthetic resin, two fitting hole portions (or fitting recessed portions) respectively corresponding to their associated shaft portions are formed in a lever support member, and the shaft portions are respectively fitted into their associated fitting hole portions in a rotatable manner.
By the way, in this type of lever apparatus, it is desired that a cover part including a spherical-shaped outer surface should be disposed on the base end portion of the lever. To meet this desire, it is expected that there is employed such a structure as shown in FIG. 6. That is, a cover part 2 including a spherical-shaped outer surface is disposed on the base end portion of a lever land two rotatably-supporting shaft portions 4 are respectively provided on and projected from the two mutually opposing side portions of a mounting part 3 projected from the interior of the cover portion 2. In this case, it is necessary to form two recessed portions 5 for thickness reduction in the inner surface side of the cover part 2 in order to prevent a dent (a hollow) from being formed in the outer surface of the cover part 2.
However, in the manufacture of the lever 1 having the above structure, there arises the following problem. That is, in the molding operation for molding the lever 1, to form the thickness-reducing recessed portions 5 of the cover part 2, it is necessary to slide a molding mold for molding the thickness-reducing recessed portions 5 in the arrow mark A1 direction (in the projecting direction of the mounting part 3) when the molds of a mold structure are opened. But, since the shafts portions 4 are projected in the neighboring portions of the openings of the thickness-reducing recessed portions 4, it is impossible to slide the molding mold for molding the thickness-reducing recessed portions in the arrow mark A1 direction. Due to this, it is difficult to manufacture the lever 1 having such structure.